USC's Spurrier talks about his two solid QB options

South Carolina played host to Vanderbilt in basketball on Saturday at Colonial Life Arena, but the loudest cheers of the day had nothing to do with the happenings of the game.

By MATT CONNOLLYmatthew.connolly@shj.com

South Carolina played host to Vanderbilt in basketball Saturday afternoon at Colonial Life Arena, but the loudest cheers of the day had nothing to do with the happenings of the game.Steve Spurrier and members of the USC football team, including former Boiling Springs star Dylan Thompson and Byrnes standout Nick Jones, took to the court at halftime to a thunderous ovation to address the crowd following their record-setting 11-win season.With a number of recruits on hand, Spurrier took the opportunity to address his team's success this past season and highlight what he'd like to do moving forward."We had another wonderful season. We still have not won an SEC Championship. We hope in the very near future that's going to happen," Spurrier said. "We've got several future Gamecocks in the crowd tonight, and we're hoping to have an SEC Championship trophy down here."Spurrier said the 2011 and 2012 seasons were very similar but added that the latter was better because the Gamecocks finished the year ranked No. 7 in the country for the highest finish in school history."We went 11-2 again to tie our all-time best record, went 6-2 in the SEC which tied our best record there. And also had a couple of championships, not as many as we'd hoped, but every time we beat that team from the Upstate, that team that wears orange, we get that trophy," Spurrier said referring to USC's victory against Clemson. "Also winning the Outback Bowl, we're the Outback Bowl Champs for 2013. That was neat."Spurrier then spoke about his two quarterbacks, Thompson and Connor Shaw, calling them, "The best two quarterbacks on the same team in college football."After speaking to the crowd, Spurrier addressed the media. He said the goal of the halftime festivities was to let recruits see how much USC fans love football."We've got a lot of our recruits, committed guys in this week, so hopefully they'll see how important football is here at South Carolina, and hopefully maybe they can do a little bit better than these guys have done thus far."Spurrier also addressed the departure of star wide receiver Ace Sanders, who elected to enter the NFL draft following his junior season. Spurrier said he wasn't surprised by Sanders' decision and added that he has confidence his receiving corps will be fine moving forward."Not too blindsided (that Sanders left), Ace had an exceptional game in the Outback Bowl and he felt like maybe it was just time, that he was as hot as he's going to be. But we're all for Ace and we wish him the best," Spurrier said. "What it's going to do is it's going to give Shaq Roland, K.J. Brent, Kwinton Smith, all of these guys that haven't played much ... Shamier Jeffery's going to get his chance. That's just one more ball all of those guys are going to get this spring. We'll have plenty of receivers ready to go."Shaw, who is expected to battle Thompson for the starting quarterback position, had surgery earlier this month to repair his injured foot. He was on crutches at the basketball game but Spurrier said he's recovering nicely."It's coming right around. It's a four-to-six month deal, but he'll be fine in the middle of the summer," Spurrier said, adding that the quarterback battle between Shaw and Thompson will be one to keep an eye on. "We'll just have to see how it plays out. Obviously Dylan has proven he needs to play and so has Connor. We've got two good ones so we'll see how it works out."